The Vancouver Canucks made a big splash when they were able to sign goaltender Braeden Holtby with a two-year deal worth $8.6M which works out to be a 4.3 million dollar cap hit. This is a very good move for Vancouver as they are able to save 1.7 million as free agent goaltender, Jacob Markstrom, signed with Calgary for 6 years at $6M each year.
Going forward, the Vancouver Canucks are in a bit of a conundrum. They still hold on to Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, two very friendly entry level contracts, but that will end next year as they are both due for a big payday. Which leads me to believe the next year will be a rebuilding year for Vancouver as their defense pairings are quite thin as of now. If our young prospects can perform well, the Canucks still might be able to sneak into the playoffs however the approach seems to be building for the future instead of going "all-in" to win the cup. This in my mind is the right thing to do as mortgaging the farm for a one-year cap-run is not a good recipe for success.
Things are at a crossroads and that's ok. What partially ruined our era from 2001 to 2015 was astronomically high Stanley Cup expectations that made our regular seasons somewhat meaningless. This isn't always the best approach as it should always be an accomplishment to make the playoffs.
The positives from yesterday:
We still have our 2021 1st which is huge incase Demko isn't ready for a starting goaltender role and more importantly we still hold a pretty healthy prospect pool despite none of them being a super star caliber.
We need to look at the positives during a pandemic when there are still no fans so why worry about a unorthodox season anyway??? Why can't people understand that????
I give Jim Benning a A- yesterday considering where we are in the process. Let things play out and lets see where we are next spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment